Guitar making has been a constant tradition in the small Spanish town of Casasimarro, in the province of Cuenca, since the 18th century. One of the earliest shops, dating from 1755, was run by none other than Alfonso Anselmo Alarcón, the great-grandfather of Vicente Carrillo Casas (b. 1963). The family art was subsequently handed down son to son, starting with Blas Carrillo Alarcón, (a.k.a. “Abuelo Moreno” – “the dark-haired grandfather”) in 1836, then on to Vicente Carrillo Lopez, to Vicente Carrillo Cantos (and wife, Gabriela Casas Fornier). Their son, Vicente Carrillo Casas has been running the shop since 1980, maintaining a family tradition now in its 5th generation. For many years now, the Carrillo workshop has earned the small town of Casasimarro the loving name “El Pueblo de las Guitarras” (the Town of the Guitars).The distinctive elements of the Carrillo style have been influenced in recent years primarily by Madrid luthiers Angel Benito Aguado, and Jose Romero (of the Jose Ramirez workshop). The guitars therefore have a big, deep and powerful quality much like the best guitars from the top Madrid shops, yet they still retain a lyrical charm found in the southern Spanish instruments. In cooperation with GSI, Vicente has also made several further modifications to his guitars and GSI is proud to be re-introducing several new models, which we believe are among his finest instruments to date.

1a ClassicalThis is the top model from the Vicente Carrillo workshop. It features his best materials, including stunning Brazilian rosewood with sap highlights. Although this guitar has the clarity and separation of spruce, the sound is also warm and full - qualities much more typical of a great cedar. It has an elegantly shaped neck for optimal playability and is a great value for the serious concert performer.

Andrea Tacchi's innovative Coclea Thucea design was inspired in part by an especially fine late Antonio Torres guitar with a three piece spruce soundboard. On close examination of this vintage instrument's top, Tacchi observed that the great Torres had chosen decidely more flexable spruce for its outer two panels than for its central spruce one.

In his brilliantly conceived Coclea Thucea guitar, Tacchi has further developed Torres' idea by joining lighter less stiff western red cedar outer panels to a heavier stiffer Italian spruce central panel. The musical result is an individually handcrafted masterpiece of uncommon beauty and refinement: a magnificent, warm, very focused, very responsive, very, very powerful modern concert guitar which is also capable of great sweetness and delicacy of sound.

To paraphrase the great Florentine master, Andrea Tacchi, on his innovative design:

Anyone who plays this instrument will immediately discover its acoustic characteristics - superior projection in a hall, sweetness, color, warmth, unusually wide dynamic range (the softest pianissimos project like bells), quickness of response and ease of playability - all achieved without betraying the legacy of the great individually handcrafted classical guitars of the past.

The assembly of this concert guitar is done in phases in which the humidity is controlled at varying levels so as to create a structure that is both in perfect equilibrium and also active - particularly reactive to the stimulus of the guitar strings. Intonation is the result of the most recent international studies. Everything in this instrument works together for quality of sound and spontaneity of expression, resulting in something more, something better. (Learn more).

This guitar was built in the same Madrid workshop as the famous 1912 Manuel Ramirez instrument played by Andres Segovia for the first 25 years of his historic career, and which is now on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. The sound of this guitar can only be compared to a Torres, Santos or Esteso. It is elegant, very sweet and has a lyrical, singing voice to it. The maple back and sides give it an introverted, very thoughtful yet beautiful quality of tone. Aesthetically, it has stunning aged flamed-maple for the back, and an elegant, perfectly executed rosette - one of our favorites. The guitar has had some excellent repair work done, largely to fix cracks that have appeared over the years, and the integrity of the instrument remains intact. This is both a highly collectible instrument and a pleasure to play on.

Made by the son of the great guitarist of the same name. It has huge volume and extremely quick response - although the tone is "classical", the response and playability is much like a southern Spanish flamenco guitar. The instrument is very lightly built, reminiscent of the legendary guitars that were built in the Miguel Rodriguez workshop in Cordoba, Spain. Playability is very easy with a smooth neck and large, rounded frets. The sound is thick and warm, yet very pure and separated, which is exceptional for a cedar top. Pepe Romero`s waiting list for new instruments is several years so we are delighted to have a guitar of his which is available now.

Kenneth Brögger is Denmarks top builder of traditional Spanish-style guitars in his generation. He has been active for over a quarter of a century as a luthier, writer, restorer of old instruments and museum exhibitor. As a result of his tireless efforts, Brögger has become highly regarded in his native country, and was honored by the Queen of Denmark in 1997 when he was awarded the "Applied Arts Prize of 1879" and a silver Hetsch Medal, the highest recognition in the field of artisan craftsmanship.This instrument is a near-exact reproduction of an original second-epoch Torres from 1890 in Brögger's personal collection of fine instruments. The dimensions, thicknesses of woods, proportions and aesthetic details of the original have been meticulously reproduced. The resulting guitar is in our opinion the finest and most authentic Torres copy we have ever seen. It is astonishing just how close this is to the original, not just in weight (1 gram difference) and appearance, but also in sound. Brögger has somehow captured the magic of Torres in a way we have never before seen. We congratulate Kenneth in this accomplishment and are proud to offer this instrument for sale. He has built two copies, one with pegs (like the original) and the other with machine heads. Click on the images above to see photos of the original guitar.